High-speed rotary drilling machine



F. H. DAVIS v HIGH SPEED ROTARY DRILLING MACHINE Nov. 24 1925. 1,562,873

Filed June 12. 1923 3 Sheet-Sheet 1 EL w E1 QM 12 m All/army Nov. 24 1925. 1,562,873 F. H. DAVIS HIGH SPEED ROTARY DRILLING MACHINE Filed. June 12, 1933 3 Shets-Sheet 2' WIT/7588158. I INVENTUR I By ATTORNE V Nov. 24, 1925.

I F. H. DAVIS HIGH SPEED ROTARY DRILLING MACHINE Filed June 12, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Fiu mi I W IIIIHJ Patented Nov. 24, 1925.

UNITEDSTATES PATENT orrmg,

. smote mun! nsvrs, or xonnm, miromln.

area-man noun! murmurs ncrrnm 7 Application nledlnne 1!, 1m. lerlll Io. i314.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Fmucrs HARLEY DAVIS, citizen of the United States, residin at Monterey, in the county of Monterey an State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hi h- Speed Rotary Drilling Machines, of WhlCh the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to improvements-in high speed rotary drilling machines for boring into the earths strata, for mineral exploration, making wells, .soundings, concrete testings and for such other purposes as a machine of this kind can be used. My drilling machine is primarily desi nedto operate a shot drill but can be use crate other rotating types'of drills.

My invention consists in an improved form of drill-gate which supports feedguides; in the provision of a feed-carriage; in the provision of an improved; form of drill feed; in a new and improved means of affording access to the borehole for large tools or casing; in a novel construction of hoist in relation to its drum-shaft and an interior drive-shaft passing therethrough and in certain other details of construc-' tion and combinationsof parts as will hereinafter be fully set forth.

The objects of my invention areto provide a high speed drill that will do faster drilling, that will reduce the cost of construction of such drills, reduce cost of upkeep, save time and labor while drilling and generally to improve the construction and operation of drills of this type.

I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1, represents a front View of a drilling machine embodying my invention; Figure 2, a cutaway top view of the machine; Figure 3, a vertical section of the machine on the line AB of Figure 1; Figure 4:, a vertical detail section of the machine on the line CD of Fig. 1; Fig. 5, a detailed View on the line E-F of Figure 2; Fig. 6, a rear view of swivelling member; Fig. 7, top view of swivelling member; Fig. 8, rear view of the gate 2; Fig. 9, eneral view of 'machine on line AB on a little larger scale; Fig. 10, detail elevation of a modified form of feed carriage; Fig. 11, sectional detail of the feed member andrto each other.

to op-' lar parts throughout the different figures of the drawing.

Apart from the details of the feed carpage and feed mechanism the drill herein illustrated comprises three frame members; namely, astation'a supporting member 1 and two other mom rs carried thereby and relatively vable' to the said supporting i The stationary member suppprts bearings for a hoistin drum and r ngs for adrive shaft an means for holding the drive shaft in and out of its operating position. One relatively movable member, namely the to 2 carries bearings for mounting a dri -spindle, togetherwith feed guides and feed yokes slidably mounted thereon; the other relatively movable member, the swivel-plate 47 Fig. 6, 1s interposed between the stationary sup- Bgrtmg frame and the ate 2, its function mg to incline the dri -spindle for drillmg at different angles. The function of the gate 2 18 to carry away the drill-spindle and all the feed mechanism from their operative position over the borehole so that access may be gained thereto.

The stationary supportin member or drill frame, hereln designator? by the reference character 1, is furnished with a plurality of bolts 48 and a cylindrical groove 50 adagted to engage with its counterpart, the gui e-rib 49.-' The swivel-plate 47 shown in Fig. 6, on its rear face has a cylindrical guide-rib 49 adapted to fit into groove 50 to maintain correct axial alignment between the two members, the arcuate bolt-slots 51 being concentric with guide-rib 49 enable said swivel-plate to be fastened rigidly to the frame 1 at any desired angle to the vertical by the bolts 48. The swivel-plate is further furnished with a hole 52 through it, said holebe-ing larger in diameter than the diameter of pinion 3, at one end it is provided with a hinge member 21 while the opposite end is rovided with a slot and lugs for a latcholt 12, on the front face of said swivel-plate are two vertical slotted grooves 24 and 24'. The gate 2 is provided with a hole 52 through it similar to hole52 of swivel-plate,xalso has the hinge complement of that of the swivel-plate so that the two may be hinged together by means of a bolt. The inner surface of gate 2 is provided with the tongued ribs 23 and 23' adapted to intermesh with grooves 24 and 24 of swivel-plate. 'Both members are hinged to each other at 21. Gate is securely locked to the swivel-plate by the latch-bolts 12 carried by the swivel-plate and I engaging with the bolt-slots 12 of the gate,

when the ate is thus bolted to the swivelplate by tie latch-bolts 12 and the swivelplate securely bolted to the supporting frame by the bolts 48, both gate and swivelplate become in effect an: integral part of the said supporting frame.

The drill-spindle 10has the bearings 36 and 36' and the usual long grooves 37 and 37 diametrically opposed extending along its length and adapted, to cooperate with the splines 38 and 38' attached to the driven gear 4 so as to permit longitudinal movement of the said drill spindle in either direction for the full length of its travel between the bearings 36 and 36 and the thrust bearings 16 and 15 respectively either while stationary as regards revolution or while receiving continuous revoluble movement through the intermeshing gears 3 and 4 (clearly depicted in Fig. 3) and imparted from drive shaft 9 driven by the belt pulley 39 or any suitable means, said pulley is provided with spline engagement on the shaft 9 for a purpose appearing hereinafter.

Further reference to Fig. 1 shows the feed-guides25 and 25 rigidly supported by the gate 2 in their socket bearings 40 and 40" and held in place therein by the set screws 17 18, 19, and 20. The feed-yokes 13 and 14 are adapted for slidable engagement with the feed-guides 25 and 25 and to act therewith as supplemental bearings for the drillspindle 10, the said drill-spindle is provided with the thrust bearings 15 and 16 co-acting with the inner faces of the said feed-yokes and is revolubly mounted in the said feed yokcs in such manner that a movement of the feed yokes in either direction longitudinally would impart thrust from the said feed yokes to the drill-spindle and cause it to slide through the driven gear.

The combination of parts comprised in the drill-spindle, thrust bearing and feedyokes, regarded as a unit, form a feedcarriage and may be referred to as suchliere- .inafter; however, in Figs. 10 and 11 I show as a modification of the principle involved, a feed-cariage cast 1n one solid piece. As

shown in Figs. 10 and 11, the feed carriage has no flexible members but is ada ted to be moved in either direction longitu inally of the feed-guides 25 and 25 by lack and pin- It is obvious that such a feed-carriage can be caused to move longitudinally of the feed-guides by various means such as a screw, a re e, or a rack and pinion means. A preferab e form of actuatin my feedcarriage for imparting upwart or downward movement of the drill is by chains two of which roll up on sprockets or drums while the two opposite chains unroll therefrom simultaneously. The worm wheel 29, worm 30 and worm handle 31 (Figs. 1 and 2) constitute a manually operated means of turning the winding shaft 27 on which between the bearings 28 and 28 are keyed to the said shaft four sprocket wheels the two outer designated 32 and 32 and the two inner, 33 and 33'. The said winding shaft 27 lies in a plane parallel with the feed-yokes 13 and 1 1. Feed-yoke 13 is provided with the lugs 34 and 34 (or other suitable means of attaching a sprocket chain thereto). The point of attachment is axially in line with the centres of the feed-guides 25 and 25' and the center of the drill-spindle 10. Yoke 14 is similarly furnished with the lugs 35 and 35'. The pitch line of all four sprocket wheels is precisely in line with the lugs 34 and 3 1 of feed-yoke 13 and lugs 35 and 35 of feedyoke l t. The sprocket-wheels 32 and 32 and 33 and 33 are furnished with the sprocket chains 41 and 1-1 and 42 and 42, one pair of chains is adapted to be wound in one direction and the other pair in the opposite direction as shown in Fig. 4:. From the illustration it will be seen that motion of the worm-handle 31 in one direction would impart motion to the feed-carriage in one direction and that a reverse motion of handle 31 would move the feed-carriage in the opposite direction, one pair of chains winding on the sprocket and the other pair unwinding simultaneously according to the direc tion of the winding of handle 31, but all four chains pull equally on the feed-yoke and in a true axial line with the feed-guides no matter whatthe direction of the winding may be. This novel form of drill fcedives instant and precise control of the dril feed in either direction but if a considerable quick drawback of the drill is required the spring jaw-clutch 4.3 can be instantly released thus disengaging the winding mechanism from the shaft 27 allowing the same to revolve freely within the worm-wheel 29 thus enabling the drill to be pulled off the bottom by means of a rope and hook which may be attached to the bale 44 until the bearings 16 and 36 come together.

I am aware that various. forms of. guides have been used for drill-spindles located at points above the point of drive (the gears) for steadying the drill-spindle against wobbling when high above the gears. as is the case when the drill-spindle has been raised to its highest limit preparatory to drilling them, the

down a fresh portionof the sectional drillrods, but, the steadying effect of such guides above the gears is variable and their ef- .ficiency wanes as the drill-spindle travels down them in the process of drillingpfurthermore, such guides located above the point of drive, by reason of their location at the 11 per end of the drill-spindle fall to steady 'tie drill-s indle and (gears agamst certain, violent 'vi rations an shocks that come up the drill rodsout of the bore-hole as hereinafter explained, whereas, the feedcarriage of my invention does do so, the drill-spindle being at all times uniformly braced against fiexure and vibrations throughout its entire range of travel. Moreover, the feed-guides 25 and 25 when receiving shocks and vibrations transmitted thereto by the feed yokes 13 and 14 function in a new way by each feed-guide yielding its modulus or moment of elasticity which tends to absorb such vibrations so that they die down before ever entering the gears.

I have roved by practice that under certain con itions it is very desirable to revolve a drill rapidly. In one instance, while drilling a 5" hole (five inch) hole in hard sandstone I was able to drill six feet an hour with the drill revolving two hundred revolutions per minute, stopping the drill three times to add two .foot lengths of additional drill-rods. By speeding up the drill to more than six hundred revolutions per minute I drilled twelve feet of the same rock under the same conditions in less than an hour and rotation from a medium to a fast speed a point was reached where the drill-rod down the hole lashed and vibrated so alarmingly as to threaten to wreck the machine but that on still further increasing the speed of rotation the rods straightened themselves in the hole, a yratory action was induced in drill was relieved of excessive friction against the wall of the hole which enabled me to do the remarkably fast drilling above mentioned. By the use of my feed-carriage I am enabled to attain still higher speeds of rotation'of the drill with perfect ease and safety, and do still faster drilling.

In drills of the rotary type wherein the well known form of rotator is used for revolving the drill the said rotators' are genera ly made with an opening through their centers large enough to admit of casing or tools of large size to bepassed through them, but in drills of the type of construction resembling the subject of my improvement, which might be called the diamond drill type,'wherein a string of drill-rods is rotated by means of a drill-sp1ndle, or mandrel, it has been largely the practice to use a hinged member such as the gate 2 of this specification to carry thedrill-spindle away from the bore-hole when handlm or out of the same, the drill-s indle first being unscrewed from the dril -rods; this serves the purpose when casing or tools of small diameter are used but it frequently occurs that formations are met with when drilling that cave in and call for casing and frequently casing after casing is called for in order to reach the objective point of the bore-hole and unless such boreholes are commenced with casing of large diameter there is danger of the borehole having to be reduced to the smallest diameter before reachi e the desired depth, numberless boreho es have had to be abandoned from this cause. .4

In order to enable drilling machines of this type to use fairly large casing or drilling tools, various forms of construction have been adopted, some of which operate in con junction with a gate, and some without. In many types of diamond drills provision has been made for racking the whole drilling machine back from the'borehole when access was required thereto,and frequently these machines weigh thousands of pounds, I cite these examples for comparison with my simple, inexpensive, labor-saving and efficient means whereby room, and to spare, is provided for the largest tools or casing to have access to the borehole, simply by swinging open the gate 2, thus carrying away everything from over borehole 11 except the pinion 3 and a small portion of shaft 9 carrying said pinion 3, both of which may be removed from this overhanging position with respect to the borehole, by lifting the latch 5 as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5 and operating the shift-lever 55 in a directools in tion away from the borehole which causes the shaft 9 to be retracted from its operativeposition by sliding in its bearings 7 and 8 until latch 5 can be dropped on the opposite side of thrust-collar 6, which leaves the arrangement of parts as illustrated in Fig. 2 wherein the borehole is shown uncovered. The lugs 45 constitute a convenient means of keeping pulley 39 in position while shifting the shaft with pinion 3 from the operative to the inoperative position.

I desire it understood that while the retractable drive-shaft 9 is herein shown in combination with my feed-carriage, feeding means, I also consider the said retractable drive-shaft 9 as an independent entity and wish so to protect it by this specification that it may be covered in its use in any kind of drilling machine to which it may be adapted.

Figure 9 shows hoisting-drum 46 mounted on the hollow drum-shaft 53 and carried in the independent bearings 54 and 54' with drive shaft 9 running therethrough, concen-.

. die-carrying means provided with suitablerior of 53 and the exterior of 9 which'novel construction in this connection admits of hea strains being applied to hoist 46 without d anger of bindin drive-shaft 9. This construction ensures t at said shaft 9 may be shi ped to or fro in the bearings 7 and 8, free without binding/from the pull of the hoist. While I have herein shown and described specific forms of my invention I do not wish to be limited thereto except by such limitations as the claims may import.

I claim 1. In a drill of the kind described, a stationary supportin structure and a drillhead carried there y, free-ended vibratable feed-guides fixedly carried by the drill-head, independent spindle-carrying means, said means freely mounted on the v1bratable feeduides and adaptable for straight up and 'own line of travel thereon, said spinfeed element or elements engaging complemental element or elements carried by the drill-head, said engaging elements constituting a direction-changing means being adapted to impart regulative adplstment to the said spindle-carrying means longitudinally of the said vibratable feed-guides.

2. In a drill of the kind described, a stationary supporting structure carrying a eans drill-head provided with a gate, the gate carriying free-ended vibratable feed-gu1des,'inependent spindle-carrying means freel Y engaging the said feed-guides and being a apted for up and down movement longitudinally therewith, said spindle-carrying means being provided with suitable feed element or elements engaging complemental element or elements carried by the drill-head, said engaging elements constituting a directionchangmg means being adapted to impart regulative adjustment to the said spindlecarrying means longitudinally of the said vibratable feed-guides.

3. In a drill of the'kind described, the combination with a stationary supporting structure and a drive-sh ft whose bearings are stationary with said stationary structure, said drive shaft adapted for movement both rotary and longitudinally in a straight to and fro line of travel in its bearings, of a hoisting drum, means for driving same, hollow drum-shaft for said drum, said drum and drum-shaft enveloping but nottouching said drive-shaft, bearings for drum-shaft situated between the bearings for drive-shaft substantially as described and for the purpose set forth.

1 In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

FRANCIS H, DAVIS. 

